How to welcome 2023 with intention (and kiss 2022 goodbye) ✨

Learn about the magic of Year Compass

I always get so excited for January. I call it the Quiet Month, and I take my annual hibernation seriously. But before I go into my cave, I thought I’d share with you some of the ways I intentionally welcome the new year, and close the door on the last 365 days.

You can hear all about the different methods I use to align my goals for a new year on today’s podcast episode — the final episode of season two. (It’s only 18 minutes long!)

If you vibe with “Nothing Matters” as a worldview, I think you’ll be into what I have to say in this ep (3:16):

You are a speck floating on a rock in space. And one day no one will remember you. And that is actually great because that gives you the freedom to live the life you really want to be living and to spend time the way you want to.

The mantra I try to remember nowadays is Nothing Matters. I don't mean this in a fatalistic or pessimistic way, but rather in a way that reminds me that this moment is all that I have. That the love I have for myself, my loved ones, and my community matters so much more than how many tasks I get done this week, or how much I accomplish — because no one will remember any of that anyways.

Whoa, was that too much for a Saturday morning? No? Okay, let’s keep going.

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Lake Oeschinen, Switzerland — where blue Gatorade comes from.

My favorite way to reminisce on the good and the bad of the past year and get my mental sh*t together for the year ahead is Year Compass (5:47). This is a free booklet that I’ve been filling out for the last few years. If you have ~4 hours to set aside to do some journaling, I highly recommend giving it a try.

First the notebook takes you through a series of questions to take stock of 2022. Then you write down all of the biggest events and trips you took and identify the best moments of your year. (This is my favorite part because it's so uplifting to see on paper just how many places I went and how many people I spent time with.) You write about things you'd like to forgive and let go of from 2022. Then you say goodbye to all that. (Yes, all of this can bring up a lot of feelings.)

The final part of the workbook focuses on 2023. You write down three things that you will love about yourself, or let go of, or accomplish, plus what you will draw the most energy from and who you will lean on. Then you write down a page full of big, huge, GRAND dreams for the year.

What’s crazy about this part is that when I look back on my dreams for years past, SO MANY of them came true. (7:58) For example, at the beginning of 2021, I was unemployed and living with my parents in Las Vegas. I did not yet know which city I would move to or when. Here’s a bit of what I wrote about my dreams for the year ahead on January 2, 2021:

I move to a new city where I am blissfully happy. I find the community and my people quickly. I'm shocked by the good people who come into my life. My apartment hunt is easy. When I walk into the place, I instantly know this is it. I fill it with secondhand items that are affordable and lovely and filled with positive energy. I buy items carefully and fill my home with colorful accents and personality and texture. And most of all plants.

Minerva finds a spot by the big window she loves to lie in. There's a small outside area I love to let her play in in my front yard. There's a chair and table outside so I can eat breakfast and have coffee and journal. I hunt for the perfect big wall mirror and find one with golden accents.

When I'm settled, I go to the shelter and meet my new best friend. I take them home and Minerva adores them and the home feels very full and happy.

Every. Single. One. of these dreams came true, down to the mirror with gold accents, and the spot in the front yard Minerva loves to lie in, and adopting a new cat! It's not magic. I wanted all of these things badly, I spelled them out for myself, and then I made them happen. And that's the magic of Year Compass.

Doing these annual check-ins shows me just how many of my long-term goals I have accomplished, and that’s amazing! But it also holds a mirror to the things I return to year after year, yet never change. It’s an excellent tool for self-awareness, and a reminder of how you are (and are not) spending your one sweet life on this earth.

Other New Year resources I recommend:

• Susannah Conway’s free Find Your Word of the Year ebook, as well as her Unravel Your Year booklet (13:14)

• Align your priorities with Fran Hauser’s Four-Square Model. (14:00) She calls this her boundary-setting tool, and it’s great for people who feel overwhelmed by life’s responsibilities, or who only have a half hour to dedicate to New Year intention setting.

• Keep track of the best thing that happened each week for a year. Write it down on Sunday, throw the scrap of paper in a jar, and read them all on January 1, 2024. Could be a great family activity too! (15:28)

• Do a New Year tarot pull and journal on what comes up! I can’t wait to do this on New Year’s Day.

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On a sailboat in Capri, Italy

On this ep I also talk about how six months of sobriety was one of the best parts of my year (4:48). (I wrote more about that very positive experience in a past post). The book Sober Curious by Ruby Warrington as well as her workbook, The Sober Curious Reset: Change the Way You Drink in 100 Days or Less, meant so much to me this year. I feel a lot better about my relationship with alcohol than I did at this time in 2022.

If you do not feel at peace with your relationship with alcohol, Sober Curious is an amazing place to start. And if you want to hear more about my sobriety journey (and the ups and downs of the last six months that I have not spent sober), I was a guest on my friend Catherine Andrew’s podcast The Sunday Soother where we explored in-depth what it’s like to take long breaks from alcohol.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank you for being here with me. I am wishing you so much joy and love in the New Year. I’m so glad we are all specks floating on a rock in space together at the exact same time. What luck!

If you found value in the Cruel Summer Book Club podcast this year, please pretty please take a few moments to leave me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. This really helps new listeners find the podcast, and it would mean the world to me!

You are not alone!